My London....

...is really Westminster and its environs - the Cathedral, and also Parliament and the places associated with it where meetings and conferences of various sorts happen - plus a good slice of the City where I take groups of history enthusiasts...and of course the southern suburbs where I have made my home for decades and where I've worked on local newspapers, the interlocking places that were once (long ago!) villages and now merge in a muddle of traffic in the loops of the Thames or out along the old roads that reach down to Surrey and Kent...

But there is another London out there to the east, where once the great Docks brought shiploads of goods to a great city, and where, long long years before, Romans and Saxons and Vikings made their way up the Thames to make bridgeheads and encampments and carve out their own chapters of our complicated history...

And that's where I found myself on Sunday. Walking along a great stretch of water,rain lashing down, silence all around broken only by the sudden splash of oars and cries of instruction and encouragement as a rowing team ploughed its way past me.

I was out beyond Docklands, at the University of East London - invited there to give a talk on London's Catholic history. Arrived early and no one - absolutely no one - was around on the university campus by the ancient stretch of docklands water. I walked with God in the rain, pondered history, said the Rosary, relished it all...

Made my way back to the station to be met by Father Thomas of the Community of St John, entrusted with the chaplaincy at the University. Warmth and friendship in the pleasant Chaplaincy room. Next door, a lecture hall transformed into a chapel with icons and altar and candles. Students - mostly Africans - gathering. Mass,with singing led by young men with strong voices. Atmosphere of great devotion. A cheery gathering afterwards for my lecture.

It was a wonderful morning, and then a ride to Canning Town where the Community of St John is based (busy parish, over 800 regular Massgoers, plus chaplaincy of a big secondary school etc etc...) lunch, much talk, and I borrowed a fascinating book about Mother Teresa for the journey home...